RODENTIA SCIURINAE SCIURUS DOUGLASSII. 277 



The specimens collected by Dr. Newberry in the Cascade Mountains are in very high summer 

 condition, and differ very appreciably from more northern ones. The belly is of a much paler 

 shade of red and uniform in its tints, the black line on the side very distinct. The tail is 

 much fuller, the hairs longer, though still depressed. Some specimens exhibit no red at all on 

 the tail, the colors beiag throughout black, gray, and white ; thus, on the terminal half, they 

 are grayish white, with a median annulation of black, the tip of the hairs whiter than the 

 base. Towards the tip of the tail the black increases in extent, until, at the end, it occupies 

 all the hair, except the white tips and a very obsolete indication of gray at the base. In this 

 condition the tail exactly resembles, in every respect, that of S. fremotitii, and the two, com 

 paring numbers 1160 and 520, could not be distinguished from each other, except by the white 

 belly of the latter. I consider it quite possible, if not very probable, that these may be two 

 varieties of color of the same species, such as we see in other squirrels, even if the S. douglasii 

 of Oregon be considered distinct again or not. 



Specimens from Petaluma, California, are similar to Oregon ones in the brightness of the under 

 fur, in which, however, there are some dusky-tipped hairs. The soles are densely hairy to the 

 tubercles, the posterior one not entirely covered. The tail is rather more red than in the 

 Cascade Mountain skins. This species, if all the specimens I have referred to it are correctly 

 named, is found on and west of the Cascade Mountains, from California to the head of Puget's 

 Sound. Throughout this range it appears to be quite abundant, and supplies the place of the 

 little Bed Squirrel of the eastern States. 



It was probably named by Gray in 1836, but certainly not described by any one before Bach- 

 man, in 1838. Gray described it anew in 1842 as 8. belcheri, from the mouth of the Columbia. 



I have already referred to the probable identity of my Sciurus suckleyi with this species, and 

 I have no doubt that the Sciurus mollipilosus of Audubon and Bachman is the same animal in 

 the cinereous pelage ascribed to the above species. All the remarks respecting the one in the 

 preceding article apply equally to the other ; and if these should really be two species, then the 

 name of S. mollipilosus should take precedence over that which I have imposed. From the 

 remark that the cinereous of the under parts is in some places lightly tinged with rufous, I infer 

 that the specimen described of S. mollipilosus was in a transition state between the summer and 

 winter pelage. 



